Expatriates’ Embeddedness and Host Country Withdrawal Intention

A Social Exchange Perspective, with Miikka Lehtonen and Alexei Koveshnikov.

Highlights

In this study, we conceptualize the thus far little explored relationship between the expatriate and the host country as a form of social exchange governed by the norm of reciprocity. Drawing from social exchange theory and our analysis of 451 self-initiated expatriates (SIE) living and working in the United Arab Emirates, we examine whether the degree of SIEs’ career and community embeddedness explain their host country withdrawal intention via enhanced perceived institutional trust and a more tolerant attitude toward workplace discrimination. Our results provide general support for our theoretical model and most of our hypotheses. In this way, the paper makes three contributions. First, it suggests a novel way to conceptualize the relationship between SIEs and the host country as a form of social exchange. Second, it differentiates between two dimensions of embeddedness and explicates how the two contribute to SIEs’ intentions to stay in the host country. Finally, the analysis theorizes and tests empirically two previously little explored mechanisms of enhanced institutional trust and a more tolerant attitude toward workplace discrimination through which SIEs’ host country embeddedness influences their host country withdrawal intentions.

Sustainable Development Goals

Find

Cite

Lehtonen, M., Koveshnikov, A., and Wechtler, H., (2022). Expatriates’ Embeddedness and Host Country Withdrawal Intention: A Social Exchange Perspective. Management Organization Review .